PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle
By Liam Migdail-Smith
HARRISBURG — Several attorneys and scholars, including Pennsylvania’s top legal officer, told a state Senate panel Monday that reviving now-expired child sexual abuse lawsuits would run afoul of the state Constitution.
Supporters of the plan countered that it passes legal muster and accused opponents of questioning its constitutionality in a last-ditch effort to derail the proposal.
The hearing, before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a standing-room-only crowd, came on the heels of several weeks of fierce public debate, which has abuse victims and their advocates at odds with the Catholic Church and business groups.
The bid to revive expired cases is part of a larger measure designed to give abuse victims more time to take their abusers and those who shield them to court.
State Solicitor General Bruce L. Castor Jr. was among the speakers to call the retroactive part of the plan unconstitutional. His opinion was echoed by three legal scholars, two of them representing the plan’s opponents.
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